1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a portable terminal, in particular a method and an apparatus for managing icons in a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many portable terminals provide various convenient and auxiliary functions, which may secure more customers for manufacturers and service providers of portable terminals, as the usage of portable terminals increases. Recently, manufacturers and service providers have been competitively providing various applications in portable terminals for allowing a user to enjoy various pastimes and providing functions that add convenience to a user's life. Therefore, portable terminals tend to have at least several applications.
When the portable terminals have a large number of applications, it may become difficult for users to find a particular application. Hence, applications may be organized using folders that may each provide access several applications. For example, the users may create a game folder and a life folder, and add icons for designating a plurality of game applications to the game folder and add icons for designating applications relevant to a user's daily life (e.g., a scheduler, a morning alarm, a traffic guide application, etc.) to the life folder. Arranging applications into folders in this manner may enhance the accessibility to the corresponding application within each respective folder.
Currently, a folder may created or deleted according to the control of the users, and portable terminals may also provide a function for adding applications to a folder and/or to move applications from a folder to a location external to the folder. For example, in a touch screen terminal, such functions may be provided by detecting touch actions of user. For example, the user may touch an icon to designate a first application to drag in a game folder in order to add the first application to the game folder. A user may touch the first application included in the game folder of the portable terminal and drag the application to an area outside of the folder in order to remove the first application from the game folder and to move the first application to a location outside of the folder. When the application must be moved in the above-described manner, such as when a user intends to move all the application in the folder to another location outside of the folder, there is disadvantage in that each application must to be touched and moved one at a time in order move all of the applications within the folder.
Hence, there is a need for a new method for managing application icons included in a folder.